Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Two Lost Paths
by RevelMoxut
Summary: Percy Jackson's quest seemed simple enough, until a fourth quest goer joins he, Annabeth, and Grover on their journey west. Luke Castellan comes to Percy as a friend, but can he trust him to escort the group on their path? Or will the Luke betray him as the prophecy suggests?


**The following chapter briefly goes over information already established in _Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief_ by Rick Riordan about Half-Bloods, the gods, and Camp Half-Blood. These details are not elaborated in as much detail as the source material, but facts that are common knowledge for fans of the series and may seem to be review for them. The story begins about 5 chapters into the source material instead of the very beginning for the sake of the following character interactions, which is where deviations begin from the original. This chapter is not meant to reiterate information but introduce these characters in a different way for the sake of the story.**

**This story is not meant to fully follow what happens in _Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief_ by Rick Riordan, as later events in the story will follow a different path than the original for the sake of not retelling the original with a few small changes. ****More apparent changes than the one in the following will begin in chapters afterward soon.**

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**Chapter 1:**

**I Lose it in Front of My Camp Counselor**

I was having a strange dream, about a golden eagle and a white horse fighting to the death on the beach. I ran to stop them from killing one another, screaming at the two to stop, only for my pleas to be drowned out by the sound of crashing waves and thunder in the distance. I felt as if I was getting no closer than where I had been when I started running towards them. I watched the horse bare its hooves at the eagle as it flew at the beast, extending its talons out. They were about to give their final blows and I tried one last time to stop them, yelling out against the explosion of the waves and the tearing of the thunder. A flash of lightning in the distance illuminated the entire beach centered between the brawling animals and I felt my eyes fill with the light as I turned away from it, nearly blinded.

I woke up with a jerk, sitting up in the bed of a room I didn't recognize. A girl with curly, golden blonde hair was sitting by my bedside, pulled back after watching me go upright so suddenly. Her eyes had widened for a second, but she readjusted her face and settled back in her chair. She picked up a cup of what looked like butterscotch pudding from the bedside table and stirred it with a spoon.

I sat there in silence for a while, unsure where I was or why I was here. Or why she was here for that matter, as it only seemed she was here to play with pudding while watching me sleep. I tried asking the girl where I was, but my mouth was too dry for words to come out… cottonmouth. The girl stopped stirring and pulled out a large glob of the pudding and put it in front of my mouth for me to eat. I leaned forward and tried to grab the spoon myself, only to discover my arms were still weak from the other night with that monster. Hesitantly, I succumbed and let her spoon feed me herself. After eating the pudding I was immediately better all throughout my body, as if I had hadn't fought that thing last night at all, plus it tasted like homemade chocolate chip cookies. I felt like I could take on another monster all by myself again.

"You drool when you sleep." Said the girl after taking the spoon back and putting the cup back on the bedside table. I sat in stunned silence, as if this was the first time I had ever heard a girl speak in my entire life. I may be able to fight off monsters, but I still couldn't look cool in front of girls. Even in my sleep. After a few moments, I realized I was staring at her with my mouth wide open and tried to say something back before I gave myself cottonmouth again.

"Where am I?" I finally got out the question, though it came out as if I was a newborn baby.

She got a puzzled look on her face as if it was obvious where we were, "You're in the infirmary. After you slayed the minotaur you passed out. You've been here for two days, sleeping on this bed." She got up for a second, grabbed the chair and turned it so the backrest was facing away from the bed. She sat down and rested her arms of the top of the chair, and asked "So, just who are you anyway?"

I didn't respond for a moment, taking in what she just said. But before she could ask again, I introduced myself: "Percy Jackson." I was confused by what she called that monster that attacked me. The minotaur, like from the old Greek myths? Is that what attacked me? Is that what attacked my…

...

Suddenly, I remembered what else had happened on that night. Watching my mother disappear into golden light after being crushed by that thing. My stomach weighed heavier in my gut and I let my head fall down.

The girl looked at me like she was sorry for what had happened, but she was probably wondering why I had become so quiet after only saying my name. She reached down under the bed and pulled out a shoe box and pulled the lid off, placing it under the box. Inside was the horn the minotaur had lost in the fight, the same one I used to kill it. She pulled it out of the box and looked at it for a few seconds – examining the dried blood – and presented it to me with the sharp end facing away, "Grover wanted you to have this. After he pulled you into camp, he went back to Half-Blood Hill and retrieved it from the battleground. Keep it as a memento, it proves that you lived." She said that last part with a smile, trying to cheer me up. She was successful, and I perked up almost immediately. I found a newfound pride in being alive, what my mother wanted more than anything and what drove her to try and protect me against that creature.

I looked up and noticed how intensely gray the blonde girl's eyes were, like I was staring at a painting of a stormy-eyed angel.

I felt myself staring and looked down again, noticing her orange shirt. The words "Camp Half-Blood" and "Long Island Sound" were printed out across the chest. It looked like it had been worn a lot, the letters were faded and there was a hole in the left sleeve.

"Camp… Half-Blood? Is that where we are?"

"Yes, it's a summer camp and sanctuary for Half-Bloods." She said as if what a half-blood was is obvious, "Didn't Grover tell you?"

I felt like an idiot asking but pretending I knew what was going on seemed like a bad idea, "No, he didn't. What's a Half-Blood?"

She sighed, as if she'd heard the question a lot, "A Half-Blood is the child of a mortal and one of the Greek gods, like Athena. You and I are Half-Bloods. We're not exactly... safe anywhere but here. Just so you know." It seemed like she thought I might try to leave without that last part.

"Umm" I began to wonder whether or not I had heard her correctly or if I was still dreaming. I even started to look around for that white horse to see if it had followed me to another dream. The girl looked defeated and took another sigh. It did kind of look as if I was looking around for someone who wasn't crazy, "I'm sorry. I'm just- confused is all."

"No, no." She put up a hand in front of me, motioning for me to stop talking, "I just go through this a lot. Let's start from the beginning." She cleared her throat and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath for a few seconds before letting it out for twice as long. Then she started again, "It's nice to meet you, Percy Jackson. I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

Annabeth debriefed me on everything about Camp Half-Blood and demigods. The gods of ancient Greece were real and they had followed the heart of the West since the fall of the Greeks. They had children, "like us," with mortals often and those kids either ended up here or as monster food.

"Hold on," I said, "my dad is some Greek god?" I felt like this was some sick, practical joke involving Grover, I thought we were going to his summer home after he came to get me and my mom at Montauk. Or maybe I'd hit my head so hard I was in a coma going over lessons from Latin class until I woke up in 40 years.

"That's right." said Annabeth, "Everyone at this camp is a Half-Blood like us. It's why you were able to eat this ambrosia without burning up, like normal humans do." She picked up the cup of "ambrosia" she had spoon fed me and showed its contents to me. What I had thought was butterscotch pudding looked much more spectacular than that, almost like edible liquid gold. I was a little concerned she was so comfortable feeding it to me when it might have meant I'd erupt in flames, I wondered if she had known if I was a Half-Blood before giving me some. Maybe that's why she hadn't said a word to me until after I ate it, to make sure I was the real deal.

"Which one?" I said slowly.

Annabeth seemed much more interested in the cup and stirred the ambrosia some more. Her mouth moved to the side of her face and she let out a small breath from her nose, "That's the question everyone wants the answer to isn't it?" She let out with a sigh, "We don't know, a lot of kids don't. Some never know. I'm sorry."

"Oh." I felt my hands grip the blanket as a small shimmer of hope left me, excited that I might have had an idea of who my mom had fell in love with 12 years ago.

Annabeth saw me look down again, "But don't worry!" She said suddenly, "That doesn't mean YOU never will. You killed that monster all by yourself out there! You're clearly destined for greater things!" She stood up with the chair under her legs, clenching her fists upward.

"You think so?"

"I know so." Annabeth was straight up pumped with a huge smile on her face, and it was contagious. I felt like she really believed what she said about me. She managed to get me to smile again.

Then a thought came up, "Wait, how do you find out who your god-parent is?"

She sat back down in her chair with her legs crossed around it, "If you're worthy of being claimed, your dad will send a sign of who he is. Kind of like boasting about you being his kid, if you'd like to think of it like that." I couldn't imagine anyone would want to brag about having a kid like me, especially a god. I mean, wasn't killing that minotaur enough? Had even that not been enough to prove myself? Before I had a chance to bring it up and make myself feel bad again, Annabeth went on, "Let's not worry about your dad right now though. I have some questions for you."

Before she could get another word out, the door to the infirmary opened suddenly and Grover came running in, followed by a guy with light blonde hair who looked like he was about 19.

Grover was this scrawny looking kid who was my best friend from my old school, Yancy Academy, where I went before I was asked to not attend next year. I never asked why, but he always looked much older than everyone else in our class. He had acne, a goatee that had been growing in, and was a little taller than most of us. I always assumed he'd just been held back a few years. He also walked around on crotches and… hold on, he was standing straight up right now without them. And his pants were off like the other night when he had…

"G-Grover," I stammered, "Your legs!" Below the waist were cloven hooves and dark brown fur like a goat's hide. He kind of smelled like a goat as well as he clopped in as fast as he could and hugged me tightly, muttering and sobbing about being worried after I passed out.

"P-Percy, I'm so happy you're alright." He stuttered. It was kind of awkward with Annabeth and the other guy in the room, but I was just glad to see Grover. Even with a goat's behind. I remembered learning about men with the legs of a goat in my Latin class at Yancy Academy, so I figured if what Annabeth was telling me was true then Grover was one after all. What were they called again, satires?

"Grover," said the guy who'd walked in, "take it easy you're scaring him. You wouldn't want him to pass out again would you?" The guy looked tough, but not in a scary way. He was a built in his muscles and wearing the same t-shirt as Annabeth, only it looked even more worn out than hers. No, not worn out... ruined. The sleeves were missing, but that looked like intentional damage. The rest of the shirt was singed in some spots with a lot of sewn up tears and patches of lighter orange cloth. His tan shorts looked like they'd also seen some wear, but it was mostly just mud strains and a few holes in the seams with two stitches at the bottom of the left leg. Much like his clothes, his face was messed up. A scar ran down his left eye to his chin, one of the only really threatening parts of this guy. Though it was lightened up by the crooked-looking smile he was giving Grover.

"S-sorry Percy," Grover said, pulling away from me. I didn't mind the hug as bad as this guy made it seem, but Grover was starting to get a little carried away so I was glad someone said something before I had to, "I'm so glad you're up, welcome to camp!"

The older guy walked up to the side of the bed Annabeth was sitting down, opposite Grover when he had came up and tackled me with a hug, and gave me the same smile he gave Grover, "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Percy." He said as he put out a hand for me to shake, "My name is Luke Castellan, Son of Hermes."

I took his hand only to feel a sharp pain immediately and pulled back from it. I hadn't notice at first, even though I got a pretty good look at the guy beforehand, but there was a joy buzzer in the palm of his hand. I swear I hadn't seen it there before or seen Luke put it there, it was almost like it had just appeared from nowhere in an instant. It was a lot more powerful than any joy buzzer I had been tricked into grabbing too. On April Fools Day at Yancy, some kids had managed to get their hands on the safe side of some and shook as many kids' hands as they could before they were confiscated. But those had a more mild shock that wasn't really painful at all, just a surprising shock. I looked closely and saw some wires hanging from out of the side of the toy, he had tampered with it himself.

It was a dirty trick and he looked pretty pleased with himself, but I wasn't mad though because it was kind of impressive how far he was willing to go for a little prank. I told myself not to be upset, he hadn't left a mark and it was just a little pain that was gone now. Otherwise he seemed like a pretty friendly guy.

Annabeth wasn't so pleased, "Luke!" she started, "That wasn't funny! You could have electrocuted him! Remember what happened when you used that thing on Chiron?" She furrowed her brow at Luke, and gave him a small punch to his side. He winced a bit but I think he was playing like he was hurt so that Annabeth would stop hitting him. He hadn't stopped laughing either.

"Hey, hey take it easy, Annabeth!" Luke said, "It's not that dangerous, I've fixed it since then. Besides, Chiron lived didn't he?"

She crossed her arms, "He sounded like a horse track for four hours, his teeth wouldn't stop chattering!" Despite her behavior, Annabeth appeared to be very close to Luke, and I wondered if they might have been siblings. But then I remembered they both had two different godly parents, Athena and Hermes, so they probably were just really close. Wait… weren't all of the Greek gods related in some way in the stories? So I guess they were technically related.

Annabeth kept cussing him out for being so mean but Luke only laughed more and smiled through crooked teeth apologizing, "Heh, sorry Percy," Luke grinned, "just thought I'd give you the Hermes cabin welcome to Camp Half-Blood. You'll probably be bunking there anyway so I should get MY welcome out of the way first." He said that with such confidence, but I wasn't sure where I would be going at all. I'd only just learned I was a Half-Blood, and now I was supposed to know which cabin I'd be bunking in at this camp I'd only known existed for 10 minutes?

"He hasn't been debriefed yet, Luke." Grover said, "First, let's show him the orientation tape before we-"

"I've been debriefing him." Said Annabeth over Grover, "I was telling him everything he needed to know before you two came in." She didn't mention she was about to ask me some questions before Grover and Luke had barged in, "Yes, he'll be staying in cabin 11, Luke. He hasn't been claimed yet."

"Ah," Luke said, a little sympathetic and sad but like he was expecting it, "Well don't worry little buddy, hopefully you'll be claimed soon. Not to suggest I won't enjoy being your counselor if that happens."

"He'll get claimed," Annabeth said confidently, "He survived, didn't he?"

"That's true!" Grover chimed in, "I didn't think you could do it, but that was amazing Percy! Not everyone can take down a monster like that one before they're even in camp!" It sounded like Grover thought I might have not made it in the fight with the Minotaur, but I knew didn't mean to offend me. Still, he could have phrased it in a way that didn't make me sound like a weakling.

"Now, now." Said Luke, "I will say that's pretty impressive. I know I couldn't have done something like that when I first came to camp." Luke lost a bit of his smile and looked away but didn't stop talking in a matter-of-fact tone, "But we know the gods. Just because Percy killed that thing on his own doesn't mean his parent will give a care. Maybe if he does something heroic."

The room went quiet. I sat on that for a second, if I did something heroic. Had killing a minotaur not been heroic? Then I realized what he meant and I knew he was right. Heroic actions save people and I hadn't saved anyone but myself. My mother was gone. If I had then maybe my dad would have saw it and claimed me. But I didn't, so he probably thought it was better not to claim me at all since I couldn't save the woman he loved. I started to get misty-eyed thinking about it, and about how I failed my mom.

"Oh uh," Luke said quickly, realizing his mistake, "I didn't mean what you did wasn't brave Percy! It's just you didn't really do anything but stop a monster that was after you. Not heroic but definitely brave!" He sounded like he was trying to cheer me up, but I only got more emotional and started tearing up. So much for bravery I thought. Being brave wouldn't bring back my mom.

Luke kept going on about what he actually meant to say trying to get me to stop crying, but Annabeth shot him a nasty look and he stepped back and stopped talking. Grover came up and gave me another hug, not as wildly as before, and Annabeth put her hand on my shoulder. Luke stood at the end of the bed, looking around like he hadn't been talking at all.

Eventually I calmed down and wiped the tears away. Annabeth and Grover continued to tell me "everything I'd need to know" about Camp Half-Blood while Luke grabbed a chair and sat down next to Annabeth, but it felt like a lot was still missing that I didn't know I should ask about. I nodded and asked questions when I was confused as they told me how my ADHD and dyslexia were my hardwired battle instincts and programmed ability to read Greek, whatever those meant.

"So, Percy," Grover said after finishing up an "important, cautionary lecture" on tree nymphs, "Are you ready to go?"

"Go where?" I asked.

"Go to camp!" said Annabeth, "We've got to get you to Chiron to get you settled in!"

"Chiron? Isn't he that guy from the Greek myths who rowed a boat on some sticks?"

Annabeth looked like she wanted to smack me for that mix-up, "No, he's our activities director and a famous trainer of heroes. He was also worried about you, and it's best we go to him before you get settled in so he knows you're ok now."

"Yeah," said Luke, "and afterwards we can show you around camp. You can get started on some activities we'll be doing today in the Hermes cabin." He smiled again after being quiet for a while, it looked like he'd found his opportunity to warm up to me again. I hoped he wasn't worried he'd make me cry again just by doubting me.

"Thanks." I said, "That… sounds like fun." I didn't really know what else to tell him, I was kind of embarrassed getting so emotional in front of him after just meeting him. But at least he seemed excited to get me used to the camp.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Luke ran over to a cabinet hanging on the wall full of t-shirts and pulled out a small one, "Here they are!" He pulled a small one out and ran back over putting it in my hands. It was just like the ones Annabeth, Grover, and Luke were wearing with "Camp Half-Blood" spelled out on it with a silhouette of a winged horse underneath. The shirt was much newer than theirs and smelled like pine needles. I pulled it over clothes and got out of bed, ready to go to camp.

"Alright," said Annabeth with a determined look in her eyes, "Let's get going, I've got a feeling it's going to be a big day for Percy."


End file.
